PEOPLE Celebrates Beverly Hills 90210's Return in a Special Edition
It was a can’t miss idea from TV producer Aaron Spelling: A fantasy of rich-kid privilege, and real-teen drama. The best-looking kids you never went to school with—Brandon, Brenda, Kelly, Dylan, Andrea, Steve, David and Donna—telling emotionally authentic stories of the challenges teens face everywhere: being in and out of popular cliques, experiencing exhilarating first loves and crushing breakups, suffering embarrassing parents and their occasional brushes with the law. And though it had a somewhat slow start in the ratings Beverly Hills 90210 soon became a hit and not long after that, achieved total cultural dominance in the 1990s.
Now, you can catch up with the whole gang from California’s most famous zip code. In a new special edition, PEOPLE has gathered up the best moments, fashions, and memories from the series, ahead of its reboot on Fox starting August 7.
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“Looking back, I’m really struck by how carefully and how responsibility we dealt with so many issues that were facing the young generation back then,” says Jason Priestley, the Canadian actor who played 90210’s all-American male lead, Brandon Walsh. “We were the first show on television that had young people talking about it, as opposed to just parents wagging their fingers and saying, ‘Don’t do that.’”
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The special edition goes inside all 10 seasons—from the Walsh twins’ arrival in Beverly Hills through the college years and beyond. There’s a look at the making of the trendsetting show in its heyday, as well as new exclusive interviews with the original cast including Priestly, Jennie Garth, Ian Ziering, Gabrielle Carteris, Tori Spelling and Brian Austin Green.
They share memories of becoming overnight stars, and tell what it was like to get back together for the 2019 version of the show. This time, rather than a straight reboot, the series focuses on the real lives and relationships of the actors, who meet up at a fictional TV convention and decide to pitch a remake of their teen soap opera.
“We thought, “Gosh, everyone does reboots.” And the show had a reboot [CW’s 90210, 2008-2013] that we weren’t really a part of it,” Tori Spelling tells PEOPLE’s Aili Nahas. “When we came to the conclusion that people are fascinated that we’re really friends in real life, we’re like, ‘What if we played a version of ourselves, where we can kind of poke fun at the story lines, the backstage drama, and say We’re in on it?'”
The huge absence on the set and the show is their former colleague Luke Perry, who died in February at age 52. “Luke was a beautiful, beautiful soul,” says Jason Priestley. “The vacancy he left is palpable.”
In addition to the cast’s loving tribute to Perry (recently seen as Fred Andrews, Archie’s father on Riverdale), this photo-filled issue includes the show’s most memorable moments, its indelible styles. Get ready to venture back to the decade when bare midriffs and high-waisted jeans somehow co-existed.
RELATED: Beverly Hills, 90210 Cast Reunites for Reboot Table Read 2 Months After Luke Perry’s Death
PEOPLE’s special issue Beverly Hills, 90210 is available now on Amazon and wherever magazines are sold
